An 81-year-old retired officer of Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, Mohiniraj Yashwant Kulkarni, was held guilty by the court of additional sessions judge, SD Darne, on Monday of raping and killing the 10-year-old daughter of his wife’s caretaker. The court will pass the sentence on Tuesday.
According to the prosecution, Mohiniraj was in a physical relationship with the victim’s mother, Rekha, 30, since 2008. At noon on October 14, 2009, Mohiniraj, who used to take medicines to increase his libido, raped the girl, Rohini, and later strangled her to death at his house in Narayan Peth.
Mohiniraj asked Rekha to fetch some snacks. When Rekha returned and enquired about her daughter, Mohiniraj narrated to her the crimes committed by him. He warned her not to tell anyone because no one would believe that he raped the girl because of his advanced age.
He asked Rekha to remove the clothes from her daughter’s body, clean the blood stains on the floor and claim that the girl had died due to strangulation on account of the scarf around her neck. The police arrested both of them, but Rekha turned approver.
